Nightwing #98 Review

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Reviewer: Mathan “Lost” Erhardt
Story Title: War Games – Casualty of War – Act 3: Part 3

Written by: Devin Grayson
Penciled and Inked by: Sean Philips
Lettered by: Rob Leigh
Colored by: Gregory Wright
Editor: Michael Wright
Publisher: DC Comics

Apparently something big is happening in Gotham. A lot of criminals are getting together or something. I don’t know. I only read Nightwing and since I refuse to not have a complete run of the title, I’ve read three issues of the series that have gotten me progressively more befuddled.

This issue begins with Batman assigning different members of the Bat squad to different parts of Gotham. Batgirl tells Batman that The Spoiler may be behind the whole thing (whatever it is.)

Nightwing goes on his patrol and thinks about how guilty he feels. He’s hands are still bloody from Blockbuster’s death, and he hasn’t told Batman. And poor Dick really wants to prove that he’s worthy of Batman’s trust.

He runs into Firefly, who is using the chaos to torch an employer who was killed before they could pay for his services. Nightwing also has a beef with Firefly for torching Haly’s Circus. There’s a confrontation, and then Firefly realizes that Nightwing played a role in Blockbuster’s death.

Then we got to Catwoman returning home to find that Spoiler is gone. Then it’s back to Nightwing beating Firefly. Some cops arrive on the scene and begin firing, not caring who they hit. Nightwing get’s hit in the leg, but brings Firefly in.

Nightwing escapes and passes out on a fire escape. Then we see Black Mask entering a building, following a trail of blood and preparing to kill whoever left the trail.

Grayson does a pretty good job of continuing the storyline of the title before War Games struck. I’d imagine that she does an equally good job of following the War Games story, but since I’m not up on it, I can’t say for sure.

Phillips really impressed me with his JSA fill in issue, but I wasn’t too keen on his work here. Batman looked to bulky, and Nightwing looked a bit off. It was kind of a disappointment, especially since was so looking forward to this issue when I saw his name on the cover.